The trumpets of history sounded to alert people of the final judgments;
their trumpet blast was to call people back a into covenant relationship with their God.
They were designed to call people to repent but "they repented not of their sins." The Book of Revelation reveals Christ working out the provisions of God's Covenant in the Last Days. It also reveals Christianity's Response to that Covenant
The vast empire of Rome crumbled to pieces, and from its ruins rose that mighty power, the Roman Catholic Church. This church boasts of her infallibility and her hereditary religion, yet she received her seat from Rome and changed the living waters of the gospel into wormwood.
We are faced with another destructive religious delusion.
A great star fell from heaven, blazing like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the fountains of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. A third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died of the water, because it was made bitter.
A great star fell
Luke 10:18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.
Rev. 12:4 And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven,
The fallen star is the power behind all these destructive religious delusions-- Satan, that great rebel against God and God's truth, who was cast out of heaven. He will now create a masterpiece of deception in which his delusions will look like the light of heaven to unsuspecting mortals.
There came a time when paganism in the Roman Empire fell before the advancing form of Christianity. As more and more power was transferred upon the pope we see that "the dragon had given to the beast 'his power, and his seat, and great authority.'" that is, Satan first elevated to power and then began to work through the papal system, just as he had formerly worked through the Roman Empire.
Fulfillment: The rise of Papal Rome.
The rivers and fountains of water are symbolic of the "waters" of life which Christ offers to all who come to Him, if they partake of this "living water" they will never thirst, they will have eternal life. But the Papal system filled those waters with "wormwood" and made them bitter. Polluting the sweet waters of the gospel of truth and life, with wormwood doctrines that lead only to death. And many died of the poisoned doctrines. It is the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
The warning here is not so much for immediate physical destruction, but a warning against spiritual and eternal destruction. It's a warning that people need to seek out truth as for a priceless treasure and not simply follow the "accepted" modes of Christianity. For Satan, clothed in garments of Christianity and working through a Christian system, is offering poisoned water.
Biblical symbolism used:
The name of the star is WORMWOOD:
wormwood;Jeremiah 9.13-16 And the LORD said, Because they have forsaken my which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;
But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:
Therefore this said the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood,and give them water of gall to drink.
Jer. 23.14-17 I have also seen in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
Therefore is what the LORD of hosts says concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land.
This says the LORD of hosts, Hearken not unto the words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.
They say still unto them that despise me, The LORD has said, You shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walks after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shall come upon you.
Amos 5.7 "Ye who turn judgment to wormwood and leave off righteousness in the earth, "
Wormwood is false doctrines and beliefs, Wormwood is turning away from truth and following other gods.
Compare with 2 Thess. 2:3-12 " comes a falling away…mystery of iniquity…exalts himself above all that is called God…because they receive not the love of truth God sends delusion, that they should believe a lie, damned who believe not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness."
The star from heaven burning as it were a lamp.
This is the false "religious system" of the false prophets and teachers we saw in the above verses, teaching the false doctrines; a religious leaders representing a Christian system, acting as "lamps" to guide the people.
Daniel shows the true stars.
The Lamp or torch,
Ps. 119.105 Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.
The star falling from heaven pretends to be THE LAMP, but it is a counterfeit religious system teaching false doctrines containing counterfeit commandments and counterfeit "light".
Fallen FROM HEAVEN
The third trumpet— revealed in Christianity's poisoned truth during the rise of the Papal system.
What a warning this message contains— the papal system poisoned the truth of the covenants, the streams of living water. God calls us to "worship HIM that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains of waters." The Sabbath has a large part to play in this — the truths were brought forth, but most chose to continue to drink the wormwood water of bitter poison. "Babylon made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication."(Rev. 14:8) And she and her followers will end up "drinking the wine of the wrath of God, poured out without mixture. (Rev. 14:8)
We must study the warnings of the trumpets past if we would know what the issues of the future are. If we do not understand the trumpet warnings of the past, we will BE SWEPT AWAY by the delusions that will sweep the religious world.
This foreshadows the woman of Revelation 17 with her cup of wine, drunk with the blood of saints; she too, will receive her judgment.
Do not look for SALVATION in the Papal System.
